like 6 years ago I had a job reach out to me once from I think the filecoin or some such. It wasn't something I was interested or suited for but I spoke with the guy and we were clearly talking at right angle at each other. Whatever. I then went out for brews with my friend who is also in tech and I told him about this. He looked into it and then went and bought like 500K of seagate stock, saying to me "these idiots are going to lead to hard drive shortage". He's made all kinds of money on that. Wish I took his lead on that too.
While the article is mostly about cryptocurrency, my response is in re:
> But what do you do if you already live under tyranny? The rule of law is a great defense, but cryptography alone can't bring about the rule of law. What is the role of technology in this foundational struggle?
My colleague Moti Yung has studied this and there are some surprising results
> Anamorphic Encryption: Private Communication against a Dictator
...
> In this work, as a technical demonstration of the futility of the dictator’s demands, we invent the notion of “Anamorphic Encryption” which shows that even if the dictator gets the keys and the messages used in the system (before anything is sent) and no other system is allowed, there is a covert way within the context of well established public-key cryptosystems for an entity to immediately (with no latency) send piggybacked secure messages which are, in spite of the stringent dictator conditions, hidden from the dictator itself! We feel that this may be an important direct technical argument against the nature of governments’ attempts to police the use of strong cryptographic systems, and we hope to stimulate further works in this direction.
I've read this 3 times now and I still don't really understand what he's trying to say. The split between EFF-style cryptography-coded "technopolitics" and Coinbase-style doesn't exist; the EFF is fundamentally a libertarian project and the Cypherpunks were/are enthusiastic progenitors of cryptofinance and "web3".
> My technopolitics faction – the faction associated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where I've worked for a quarter-century – has an answer: the role of encryption is to provide a measure of privacy and security that is best used to organize political struggles to demand the rule of law and respect for human rights. Encryption isn't proof against rubber hoses, but it is effective against many other forms of state repression, and it can provide a technical edge for those engaged in a political struggle.
> Another faction – the faction most associated with bitcoin and subsequent cryptocurrency projects – rejects the role of the state altogether, and seeks to replace states (and state-regulated institutions like courts and banks) with mathematics. Rather than asking courts to interpret contracts, we can put our trust in self-executing "smart contracts," and rather than asking banks to safeguard our financial integrity, we can use cryptographic software to ensure that money only moves when the person it belongs to tells it to.
So he's saying there is a split between those who believe the state and the rule of law are essential tools of freedom, and those who believe technology can provide its own law and guarantees without any need for the state. None of that is incompatible with the EFF being a libertarian project.
And your confusion derives from…what? When he explains this, you feel the correct response is basically "nuh-uh"?
A good update. The next good question might be, okay, what happens next knowing all of this?
I ask because (yes as someone who has dabbled in crypto and also respects the generally valid views of the haters) this stuff isn't going away. For many use cases, love it or not, it works and will be used by some?
like 6 years ago I had a job reach out to me once from I think the filecoin or some such. It wasn't something I was interested or suited for but I spoke with the guy and we were clearly talking at right angle at each other. Whatever. I then went out for brews with my friend who is also in tech and I told him about this. He looked into it and then went and bought like 500K of seagate stock, saying to me "these idiots are going to lead to hard drive shortage". He's made all kinds of money on that. Wish I took his lead on that too.
While the article is mostly about cryptocurrency, my response is in re:
> But what do you do if you already live under tyranny? The rule of law is a great defense, but cryptography alone can't bring about the rule of law. What is the role of technology in this foundational struggle?
My colleague Moti Yung has studied this and there are some surprising results
https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/639
> Anamorphic Encryption: Private Communication against a Dictator
...
> In this work, as a technical demonstration of the futility of the dictator’s demands, we invent the notion of “Anamorphic Encryption” which shows that even if the dictator gets the keys and the messages used in the system (before anything is sent) and no other system is allowed, there is a covert way within the context of well established public-key cryptosystems for an entity to immediately (with no latency) send piggybacked secure messages which are, in spite of the stringent dictator conditions, hidden from the dictator itself! We feel that this may be an important direct technical argument against the nature of governments’ attempts to police the use of strong cryptographic systems, and we hope to stimulate further works in this direction.
I've read this 3 times now and I still don't really understand what he's trying to say. The split between EFF-style cryptography-coded "technopolitics" and Coinbase-style doesn't exist; the EFF is fundamentally a libertarian project and the Cypherpunks were/are enthusiastic progenitors of cryptofinance and "web3".
> My technopolitics faction – the faction associated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where I've worked for a quarter-century – has an answer: the role of encryption is to provide a measure of privacy and security that is best used to organize political struggles to demand the rule of law and respect for human rights. Encryption isn't proof against rubber hoses, but it is effective against many other forms of state repression, and it can provide a technical edge for those engaged in a political struggle.
> Another faction – the faction most associated with bitcoin and subsequent cryptocurrency projects – rejects the role of the state altogether, and seeks to replace states (and state-regulated institutions like courts and banks) with mathematics. Rather than asking courts to interpret contracts, we can put our trust in self-executing "smart contracts," and rather than asking banks to safeguard our financial integrity, we can use cryptographic software to ensure that money only moves when the person it belongs to tells it to.
So he's saying there is a split between those who believe the state and the rule of law are essential tools of freedom, and those who believe technology can provide its own law and guarantees without any need for the state. None of that is incompatible with the EFF being a libertarian project.
And your confusion derives from…what? When he explains this, you feel the correct response is basically "nuh-uh"?
Is it
(1) Didn't all the people who were into crypto get into Claude Code instead?
or
(2) I tried to tell them. They didn't listen. Now they're going to die.
?
A good update. The next good question might be, okay, what happens next knowing all of this?
I ask because (yes as someone who has dabbled in crypto and also respects the generally valid views of the haters) this stuff isn't going away. For many use cases, love it or not, it works and will be used by some?